Australian Jelena Dokic's attempt to again use the Australian Open to regenerate her career fell flat as she tumbled to a straight sets defeat to Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.
The unseeded Zahlavova Strycova won the second round clash 7-6 (7-3) 6-1, to set up a third round meeting with China's Li Na, a semi-finalist in Melbourne last year. Dokic, whose ranking has slumped to No.137, played the sort of tennis in the first set that provided hope she might again defy that lowly status, as she did two years ago, with a surprise run to the quarter-finals.
But, after the Czech world No.63 took a see-sawing first set in a tiebreaker, she raced away with the second, completing it in just 24 minutes to ensure there would be no fairytale for the Australian wildcard entrant this time.
Dokic's exit left only three Australians alive in men's or women's singles - Sam Stosur, Alicia Molik and Bernard Tomic - who are all set to play their second-round matches on Thursday.
But Dokic, who parted with Dutch coach Glenn Schaap just three days before the Open, can at least take heart from making it to the second round of a grand slam event for the first time since the 2009 French Open, having fallen at the opening hurdle in Melbourne last year.
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The Australian produced some fine shot-making in the opening set and saved break points in each of her final two service games of the set.
But her short-statured Czech opponent kept Dokic under pressure by continually chasing down balls and forcing her to play extra shots.
The intensity eventually wore down the Australian, whose game fell away markedly after losing the first-set tiebreaker.
